11.3 Your Great Task
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
And now we come to the Great Task you and Father are accomplishing together through the sent-forth Holy Spirit. That task is setting creation free, that is, altering the river by which all things “know,” from death, that is, from split-apartness, to a world of life. Or, as Paul said, bringing all things in creation into the glorious liberty in which you already live, that is, God seen and known through you.
Again, this task is your own commission from God as well as one you share together with those precious brothers and sisters with whom you fellowship. You together as the Church are setting all things free.
The Decider. But to understand this great task, we must look again at God’s intentions from the beginning. God never intended the universe of death in which we live; God always intended only a universe of life. Yet God placed Adam as the deciding agent, and that role continues to be played by all humans from then until now. That choosing is always between human performance versus faith in Christ. Word on the outside enables human performance, but Word on the inside is Christ Jesus our life.
Yet there was a greater contention taking place in the garden, the contention between the Word God speaks and that voice which accuses the Word of falseness – Did God indeed say?
Against All Accusation. God never defends Himself against accusation; rather, He just bears the hurt. But God always proves Jesus faithful and true as every Word God speaks. And the place where God intends Jesus proven faithful and true against all voices of accusation is inside your local gathering together as the Church.
Your confidence that Christ is all that you are must enlarge itself to include that confidence that asserts with all boldness, “We together, in all our interactions together, are the expression of Christ through us.” Your knowledge of personal union with Christ reaches out to include that same union of Christ with you as you walk together loving one another with a pure heart fervently.
Setting Creation Free. Here is the verse of our great task as the Church, which Paul set right at the heart of his gospel. – For the earnest expectation [the eager anticipation] of the creation awaits intently for the unveiling [removing the cover from off] of the sons of God. Indeed, the creation was made subject to vanity and purposelessness, not willingly, but through being subjected on the basis of hope that creation itself also will be made free from slavery and corruption into the freedom [liberty] of the glory of the children birthed out from God. Indeed, we know that all the creation groans together and travails together until now (Romans 8:19-22).
Your task is to set creation free.
Glorious Liberty. But before you together as the local Church can set creation free, you must first know the incredibly glorious liberty and salvation in which you fully live.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17) – For by one Spirit we were all immersed into one body… and have all been made to drink one Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). Church is the glorious liberty of all Salvation.
The Church, all the gathering together, which is His body, the fullness of Christ [the full meaning that is Christ] filling all in all, Jesus filling with Himself everything in everyone (Ephesians 1:23 – expanded). You together ARE the fullness of Christ right now.
Salvation Complete. Consider the Salvation inside of which you presently live together. That Salvation is the Lord Jesus, that is, living in John 14:20.
The Salvation that is the Church is complete and perfect, with no thought of ever falling short of God, but rather, all expectation that Father works all things together with you. As you acknowledge Father with you, so you KNOW that you live only in undiminished goodness, regardless of the privilege of present travail. And as you share in fellowship with one another, you KNOW that all of your interactions together ARE Father making Himself visible through your love of one another.
What Is the Cover? Inside of this glorious liberty, then, you look out and you see a creation staggering under the horror of not knowing God. Yet you do not see what is “visible,” that is, the defiance and arrogance. Rather, you see as God sees, you see an inherent longing and expectation inside every single created being in heaven and earth and under the earth to be free.
But what is every single entity “out there” eagerly expecting? They are longing for the day when the cover is removed from you. And not just you, but the cover removed from all those with whom you fellowship together as one Body of Christ.
What is that cover, and what happens when it is removed? The cover has been the blindness of your own eyes.
Seeing Jesus As He Is. The cover that has kept the sons of God from being known is the veil of blindness on your own eyes. You do not yet see as God sees, and you do not yet know your authority to send forth rivers of life into the healing and restoration of all things.
But that is beginning to change. And the place it is and must be changing is inside your gathering together, as you love one another.
It is as you see the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself in Person, in the face of each one with whom you walk together, then you see Jesus as He is, and you are just like Him. Then, it is but a simple thing to see the rivers of Spirit flowing out from your togetherness as Christ, bringing life to all.
The Proof of Christ. Look at the world all around you right now. What proof do you have that rivers of LIFE are flowing out from you setting creation free?
Here is your proof. – Now, faith is the substance [hypostasis – the underlying reality] of things hoped for, the proof of things not now being perceived (Hebrews 11:1). Your absolute confidence that Christ IS all that you are and working now through you, regardless, is the first part of the proof of God.
Nonetheless, evidence always requires two or more witnesses. Your confidence in Christ, even your confidence together as the Church is one witness proving Jesus faithful and true.
The Second Witness of Christ. But what is the second witness of Christ? Christ proven faithful and true requires two witnesses. What is the second witness of Christ?
And the glory which You have given Me, I have given them, that they might be one as We are one; I inside of them, and You inside of Me, that they might be perfected, brought to full completion inside of one, that the world might know that You sent Me, and have loved them in just the same way that You have loved Me (John 17:22-23).
The first witness of Christ is your confidence together that you, as the local Church, ARE the fullness of Christ revealed, even as you find yourself to be right now. And the second witness of Christ is how much you LOVE ONE ANOTHER through every daily circumstance.
Love One Another. This is the real singularity, that one moment and circumstance that changes everything.
When the world sees Christians, people just like themselves, walking together regarding one another as Jesus Himself and loving one another as God loves them, that is, Father Himself as all their connections together, they will know that God sent Jesus into the world. They will know that they are seeing God made-visible, God seen-and-known.
Love one another, full reciprocal love, is the final proof of Christ, every Word God speaks, faithful and true. Love one another in all fulness, in all God means by those words, right here on this earth, right now in this age, silences forever all accusation against God.
Now Is Come. And it is out from loving one another, then, that you together as believers in Jesus send forth the river of the Spirit that brings life and healing to all.
Here is what you must understand. Nothing in either heaven or earth has ever known a cosmos of life. Such a thing has not yet happened. But when the angel said to John, Now is come the authority of Christ (Revelation 12:10), God was placing this task upon you and me to bring all things into subjection to LIFE, to a cosmos of life. And as you love one another, inside of all your human silliness, you together are standing in the very place Adam ruined, and you are sending into creation a River of Life.
All Things Made New. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:1-2).
When you read John’s vision, you are reading nothing other than the gospel of Christ, expressed by Paul and confirmed by John, but in a third form. This is where we live right now, together as the Church, God’s New Jerusalem, living in full union with Jesus as His Body walking this earth right now.
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words [the Lord Jesus Christ] are true and faithful.”
The Points of Victory. Here are the tremendous points of victory in and through the Church inside of knowing Jesus as He is.
31. God placed humans as His authority over all. Changing our place never enters God’s mind. We have the authority of God to love one another and to call all things into goodness.
32. The work of God flows into all creation through humans. God reveals Himself, makes Himself known through us together, and His work is accomplished in creation by the sending forth of the Spirit as a River of Life.
33. The great task of believers is to set creation free. Our confidence is the first proof of Christ, and our loving one another is the second. As we love one another, so that River of Life flows out into all things, bringing all things into the glorious liberty of our Salvation.